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GameScience Dice Shortage

April 2014 Update: Lou Zocchi now once again controls GameScience. However, GameScience dice are still not being manufactured, and there is still no way to predict when they will be.

Jan 2014 Update: GameScience dice are still not being manufactured. There is no predicted date on when they might be able to start making them again; however, GameStation confirmed that they are no longer the GameScience manufacturers: “I can safely say that we will not offer Gamescience again.”

We are currently unable to get our hands on any GameScience dice, and GameScience dice are not being manufactured at this time.

Our distributors have been out of stock of most GameScience dice for some time now (though they still have the occasional odd-sized “Zocchi Pack” set at hand (update: these are gone too) they have no 7-dice or other sets). In frustration we finally went direct to GameStation, the company that purchased GameScience some five years back. The response we got was:

Unfortunately, we are currently not shipping out to retailers or distributors at this time. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. If you would like, I can email you when Gamescience Dice will be available to you again.

This was a strangely vague response. I replied asking for even the roughest ballpark timeline of when they would be back in stock, and got no response at all. Adding to the strangeness, GameStation had taken down their video of Lou Zocchi giving his GameScience spiel at GenCon.

So we did a bit more digging, reaching out to some contacts. We were able to confirm that in fact no GameScience dice are currently being manufactured at all (including the d100), and it’s unlikely that manufacturing will start up for at least a month or two until next year at the earliest. However, everyone one we spoke with was hopeful that manufacturing would start up again this year, but no one was willing to hazard a guess when, or whether the full color assortment would become available at once (there were some suggestions that manufacturing might start up one color at a time – but that is not at all certain, they could all come back at once).

While both manufacturers and distributors are out of stock, it is not possible for us to get any GameScience dice of any kind, and it will likely be a long drought before they’re available again.

9 Responses to GameScience Dice Shortage

We did in fact talk to some of the people involved and GameScience dice are still not being manufactured. Furthermore, there is no known date when they will be able to start again.

I suspect that we will see GameScience come back eventually, but not for a long while. If we see new GameScience dice this year, I don’t think it will be until the end of the year at the very earliest and it’s more likely that GameScience dice won’t be on the market until next year. This is of course pure speculation on my part.

I received this response from Gamestation on 2014-01-20:
I am not sure when or if Gamescience will be produced again. I can safely say that we will not offer Gamescience again.

and found this (uncorroborated) comment here
Zocchi was furious at the diminished quality of the Gamestation versions, and bought back the rights to the name. They’re not yet back in production, but hopefully they can iron out the quality again, because my GS dice were from the Gamestation era and they are a wreck.

this is a distribution and publicity problem since the price and the amazing unique design would be worldwide big sellers.. uh.. i have no idea how to get the Earth to know about them but i jumped when i saw a picture of the 100-sided dyceball. i would do better inner color than the naff red and the rather mundane black but on the whole the design is very striking and smart. the outer clear sphere could also be tinted or ultraviolet-tinged or have mild irridescence.. though maybe that would be a fancier model costing up to a few dollars more ?

Please Mister Zocchi Bring Back The 100 Sided GameScience Dice !
Find A Way To Get It More Famous !